The Ombudsman's final decision
Summary: We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision not to introduce parking restrictions on a junction. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.
The complaint
Mr X complained about the Council’s decision to reject his request for yellow line parking restrictions on a junction between his road and a public highway. He says the visibility from the junction can be restricted by parked vehicles making the junction a hazard to other road users.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in how the organisation made its decision, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
I considered the information provided by the complainant and the Council.
I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
Mr X asked the Council to provide double yellow line parking restrictions on a junction where he lives because he is concerned about the lack of clear visibility due to parked vehicles.
The Council assessed the application under its procedure for considering requests for changes to existing traffic regulations. If the application qualifies it will be added to the Council’s list for future Traffic Regulation orders under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. This process will then be subject to the normal consultation and approval procedures.
In this case the application was unsuccessful because it only scored 10 on the council’s system for evaluating requests for new traffic regulations. The scoring system is based on risk and traffic assessments by highways officers and the traffic collision history of the site which is usually provided by the Police. The minimum score for further consideration of an application is 20.
The decision to approve a traffic order request is not a statutory duty, highway authorities have statutory powers to introduce new traffic regulations at their discretion. In this case the request for parking restrictions did not meet the Council’s threshold for a traffic order.
The Ombudsman is not an appeal body. This means we do not take a second look at a decision to decide if it was wrong. Instead, we look at the processes an organisation followed to make its decision. If we consider it followed those processes correctly, we cannot question whether the decision was right or wrong, regardless of whether someone disagrees with the decision the organisation made.
Final decision
We will not investigate this complaint about the Council’s decision not to introduce parking restrictions on a junction. There is insufficient evidence of fault which would warrant an investigation.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman